I think after my report back to Steam Traction World tomorrow. The regulator mod kits will being dispatched out. I need to find who is getting the jig I have to send to them. Would make since I send direct if the recipient is happy giving address. But I will leave that to Steam Traction World to decide.

I would expect I was next on the list having had the conversation with Steve in January and been in steam 12 times since then. It would also mean that Andy could do the mod as well as we are close, there is also another SRL builder in sunny Bognor who may be requiring it, dont know that for certain. I do have at least five events on each weekend for the next 5 - 6 weekends though so I dont necessarily want to undo something that is working currently and be out of service for any of them so if it needs to go elsewhere first thats not an issue. I have a slack few weeks in July!!! I thought there would have been more than one drill jig although several engines dont need it having sorted their own mods out.

Is the battery going to be big enough to keep the fan running for steaming over a weekend?.

Word of caution with yellow top batteries, they are a bugger to bring back from flat especially if left in that state for any length of time, avoid leaving it partially discharged and buy a good quality charger to charge it, don't use a bog standard cheapy car charger as it really wont like it.They are good batteries and can produce huge amounts of power for their size but they don't like any form of abuse in charging or being left flat or near flat.

No worries the yellow tops sit on digital battery conditioners all the time. The big one at Crystal is normally the garage winch battery and I have a smaller one on the trailer for its winch.

Hi Coleman

The design has been tested in other engines as a "home brew" fabrication and has provided good results. I was testing the Steam Traction World production version. Both for ease of installation and quality.

No worries the yellow tops sit on digital battery conditioners all the time. The big one at Crystal is normally the garage winch battery and I have a smaller one on the trailer for its winch.

Excellent, its good to see someone who takes care of them, seen far too many folks buy them and then not take care of them and wonder why they go pearshaped only to moan that they are rubbish, when that's not the case at all.

What's the idea with the fan? I've never used one on the 4" engines and never had any problems raising steam even in the lightest headwinds. I would have thought the fan would have pulled the fire too quickly really, the natural draft on the length of tube you're using would be superb.

The fan is a computer cooler so not big or powerful in the least. At the garage the wind is very swirly and I can not get the engine pointing into wind. Also I can sometimes suffer from back drafts where the wind also comes down over the roof of the garage and causes a blowback.

The fan holds these effects back until she has a warmed chimney and gives a very small draft. She still takes the full 90 minutes to raise steam so the fan does not speed things up at all.

Quite useful to put a fire lighter in the smokebox to warm up the front end before lighting the proper fire. I concur with Lynn about the difficulty in lighting up close to garages / buildings: the wind can be very fickle.

Chuckled reading your post about back drafts. Lit the fowler Tiger up on Friday morning and opened the smoke box door to throw in a load of coal only to find I quickly lost a left eyebrow and shortened my fringe by a few inches. Serves me right for lighting up on fence panels and diesel rags with blustery wind conditions. Lesson learnt.

More of a Mississippi mud pie Tim but we made the best of it and Monday was good weather. Lynn now knows what she is missing up over the border. A very sociable event with evening fun and entertainment, engines generating outside the beer tent and a little pub run to the village on Saturday and Sunday with one pub providing some food for engine crews too - even though it rained a lot, hardy folk up in Lancashire.

A proud moment for Lynn, president of the steam fair presenting her with her rosette.

On parade

Reminded me of Dorset mud but not as deep

What do we say about showman's engines??

Sunday evening in Chipping, no rain all day just cloudy, we had been parked up for 5 minutes and headed for the pub when the heavens opened for 30 minutes!! Needless to say the rally site was interesting when we returned

Generating at night in front of Little Billy who we have visiting us in Lancashire for the next 2 months